


Trial

by melonbutterfly



Series: Not A Porn Star [5]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Alternate Universe, Declarations Of Love, Fame, M/M, Paparazzi, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-07-15
Updated: 2011-07-15
Packaged: 2017-10-21 10:14:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,057
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/224062
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The last thing Rodney expects is for anyone at work to talk to him about yesterday; sure, John is sort of famous, but Rodney honestly thought that, if at all, people would concentrate more on the fact that he won an Oscar yesterday than the part where he he attended the Awards ceremony with his boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Trial

The day after the Academy Awards, Rodney goes to work as usual. He doesn't intend to stay long, though; only into the early afternoon, because that's how long John will be busy doing stuff like arranging interviews, giving them and whatever else he and his agent do when they hole themselves up for hours. Once they're both done with their respective work, they will meet up and go visit May; John had called her the minute he had had a moment and she had ordered him to come over and celebrate the following day, no excuses. Rodney is perfectly fine with that; celebrations with May involve great food and great drink and no stupid small talk – which is very good, because Rodney has a lot to say about what sort of dimwits he met the previous evening, and May is going to be a lot more receptive than John was. Because John is sort of naïve and also very patient; he's all "they're not really that bad" and "it's not like it really matters" while Rodney is busy trying to refrain from banging his head into a wall at the sheer idiocy of some people.

Nevertheless, the last thing Rodney expects is for anyone at work to talk to him about yesterday; sure, John is sort of famous, but Rodney honestly thought that, if at all, people would concentrate more on the fact that he won an Oscar yesterday than the part where he he attended the Awards ceremony with his boyfriend.

Which is a valid assumption too; John never made a secret out of Rodney, at least not actively. There have even been a few paparazzi pictures of the two of them, but they haven't exactly been hounded every time they stepped out of the house. Nobody from John's work has ever talked to Rodney – well, except for Teyla and Ronon, but they are John's friends and thus don't really count as people from John's work – and there have never been requests for interviews or anything. Nobody in the lab had ever talked to him about it either; they haven't noticed, because Rodney is sure that if they had, they would have mentioned it. They're a noisy bunch, all of them. Sometimes Rodney feels more like a kindergarten shepherd than the CSO of a renowned and world-famous lab.

It's not that John and Rodney are keeping each other secret. They both just aren't too talkative, and John in general doesn't like talking about his private life on the job. People always ask questions because they are hoping for scandals and want to talk about other things than John's films and acting, but John doesn't like that; in his opinion, it's none of their business. He's never made a secret out of his bisexuality, or really anything else about his life, but he has always refused to talk about it. And Rodney himself occasionally mentions John when he talks about something John is involved in, but in general he doesn't really talk about his private life all that much either. All in all, they're a pretty discreet couple, Rodney supposes. Not that he thinks about it all that much; they just are the way they are.

That's why he's completely surprised when he enters the lab, nursing a cup of coffee and a little later than usual (Monday mornings are the only mornings of the week he's guaranteed to be present, due to the staff meeting he's required to attend), and half the people there turn silent and stare at him. Rodney mostly notices because the noise volume in the lab drops and motion in the corner of his eye stops. He pauses in his progress towards his computer and looks up, blinking in confusion at the stares. "What?", he says, a little snappish but comparably mild; he's halfway through his second cup of coffee, belly full with a nice breakfast, and half an hour ago he had been kissing John good-bye.

They duck behind their workstations again, and Rodney shakes his head and gets to his own workstation. He's only just sat down and switched on his computer when Simpson and Miko enter the lab, whispering furiously, a magazine between them. When they see him, Miko squeaks and blushes a furious red while Simpson exclaims loudly, "McKay!"

Rodney forcefully sets down his cup of coffee. " _What_?" Absently he notices that some of the scientists who hid from him before are now watching again, but he ignores them for the moment.

"You're- you were at the Oscars yesterday!", Simpson says. She looks way too excited for what she's talking about.

"Yes?", Rodney says suspiciously, taking another quick sip of his coffee. "So?"

She gapes at him for a moment, then gets elbowed by Miko and catches herself. "You were there with _John Sheppard_!"

"Yes," Rodney says slowly. "My boyfriend John. I noticed." Then he shakes his head and forcefully puts his cup of coffee down once more. "I've talked about him before. Why is this such a big deal that you can't do your job anymore?"

Simpson looks one second away from hyperventilating; Rodney remembers that expression well, because Simpson had looked just like that the one time she had had an epiphany that brought them ten steps forward. She _had_ fainted that time, struck down by her own brilliance; Rodney sure hopes there won't be any fainting today. That alone is the reason that he doesn't snap at her and the others who are once again paying attention to something else than their work.

"Your boyfriend John is _John Sheppard_!", Simpson exclaims.

"For fuck's sake," Rodney returns loudly, "If you faint, you're fired!"

"You're lying," Kavanagh interjects disdainfully. "John Sheppard is not your boyfriend." Kavanagh, to this day, has maintained that Rodney's boyfriend is made up; Rodney has never cared enough to set him straight.

Simpson scoffs. "Look at it yourself," she sneers and hands over the magazine she's been holding. Rodney supposes there's a picture of him and John in there.

He must be right; Kavanagh's eyes widen as he sees whatever she's showing him, and then he throws the magazine aside and storms off with one last glare at Rodney. He's always been a sore loser. Rodney should know; he's the one Kavanagh spends most of his time losing to in one way or another.

Miko hurries to pick up the magazine; she throws Rodney surreptitious looks, and Rodney gives an annoyed sigh. "Can we all get back to work now? Yes?", he asks sarcastically, and everybody ducks away again. Simpson blushes deep red, and she and Miko hurry off together.

It's an entirely weird scene, but Rodney is sure it's done with that, topic closed, let's go back to work.

Unfortunately, that day, John comes to pick him up from work – something he has done before; he even has his own security clearance so he can get into the parking lot and the lobby. That's really the limit of where his permit allows him to go, but fact of the matter is, this is not the first time John is here, though most of the time he waits in the car talking to his agent or whatnot.

Today, however, John chooses to wait for Rodney in the lobby; Rodney finds out because of the tittering out in the hall. Well, that's not how he finds out, but in hindsight that's the first indication – concretely, he finds out because Radek walks up to him, rolling his eyes and exasperated. "Go, Rodney," he says, "and take movie star boyfriend with you."

"What movie star boyfriend?", Rodney returns scathingly. John isn't a movie star, he designs airplanes and other things that fly, and every now and then he does something to earn shitloads of money that takes him away from Rodney for a couple of weeks at a time, if he's particularly unlucky. He's hoping John will get out of the habit eventually.

"He's too pretty," Radek says. "Scientists won't work anymore while he stands around and sparkles."

Rodney gapes in outrage. "He does not _sparkle_!"

Raising his hands placatingly, Radek says, "Perhaps not. But he _does_ look like a supermodel. Hear." He gesticulates towards the hall, where there is giggling to be heard. "Go free us from that... hihňat se, I cannot bear it any longer!" He throws his hands up and stalks off, muttering darkly.

Blinking at his colleague's back, Rodney pushes himself away from his desk and rolls on his office chair out into the hall. "What is going on here?", he bellows when he finds a gaggle of scientists standing in front of the glass door and peering out.

The building the lab is in is organised thus: there is the lobby, which is visible from the first five floors because the front part of it has a very high, fancy glass window. On the first floor are the the office-slash-computer-labs, with the open-plan office. After that come several specified floors with labs for simulations and with different equipment, and more office space at the top. Rodney has an office and a personal lab up there and often he and Radek hole themselves up and brainstorm in there, but sometimes Rodney needs to be down here – mostly when Elizabeth, his office manager, liaison, sort-of-boss and pretty much the reason he doesn't run away screaming at the amount of politics and paperwork he would have to handle if she weren't there, needs him to sign or discuss something. Besides, his minions become complacent without his continuing presence looming and berating them for attempted gross stupidity.

John is in the lobby right now, leaning against one of the pillars and looking – Radek was correct in that, at least – too pretty for his own good. The glass door the gaggle scientists are practically pressing their faces against leads to a sort of in-door balcony that the first five floors all have, probably to make the high window seem even more impressive. Right now, it only succeeds in making John look even better – golden rays of the afternoon sun are falling in through the wide window, making John's face look even more chiselled. With his dark hair, aviator glasses, leather jacket and dark jeans, he looks especially mysterious and especially delicious, in Rodney's opinion.

Also, obviously, in his minions' opinion. At his bellow, they startle and scatter, ducking into offices; Rodney makes sure to remember them all. Once they're all gone, Rodney scowls and packs up his workstation before heading down towards his boyfriend. The tense set of John's shoulders tells him that John has also noticed the attention he's drawing, and he probably won't be comfortable waiting for Rodney in the lobby anymore. It makes Rodney terribly angry, that a bunch of stupid scientists' curiosity ruined that for John, for both of them.

John doesn't like it when people pay attention to him; Rodney now knows that that's why John goes jogging so early in the morning, why most of the time he prefers going out after dark. Usually, they go grocery shopping at night if they go together at all, and really, they do most anything that necessitates going outside in the evenings. It's a good thing they're both such night owls.

After Rodney has signed out and had his things scanned – they're not allowed to take any kind of storage medium away from the lab – he heads for John, who pushes away from the pillar and walks towards him. His eyes are hidden behind the glasses, but there's a tense set to his mouth that tells Rodney that it's less a gesture of affection and more a demonstration when John takes his hand and pulls him in to give him a kiss.

"I'm sorry," Rodney apologises quietly, squeezing John's fingers.

John squeezes back. "We knew something like this was going to happen. It's not your fault."

It isn't really, but Rodney still feels sort of guilty. The guilt dissipates fairly quickly, however, when they find a horde of paparazzi loitering in front of his apartment building – they don't get to take any pictures because they simply drive by on the way to May, but it's a very vivid prospect of how the future is going to look. John predicted that it'd only last a couple of weeks, though; if they don't do anything exciting the hype should die down pretty soon.

Rodney certainly hopes so; he personally doesn't care much, but it makes John tense and uncomfortable, and that makes Rodney fuss and worry, at least in his head. This is a trial period – they talked about this a lot and made the joint decision that it was time to go really public. In John's business one always had to be demonstrative because otherwise the media would spin the most outrageous and false claims. John had supposed that they would claim that they had been trying to hide even though they really hadn't. So they had made the decision that if they manage to stay happy and together even with the public eye on them like this, they will start looking for a place where they'll live together.

They're both tense when they arrive at May's, and it's not because of the traffic. At least there's nobody waiting for them there, but nevertheless, neither of them gets out of the car immediately. Instead they just sit next to each other, not moving, not saying a word, not looking at one another, until Rodney can't deal with it anymore and starts to say something. John, however, chooses that very moment to open his mouth as well, and the both of them stop before either of them can say anything worthwhile.

"Sorry, go on," Rodney invites, finally able to look at John, only for John to shake his head, take off his glasses and run a hand through his hair.

"You first."

"Uhm." Rodney pulls up his shoulders. "To be honest, I don't really care. About the..." he waves his hand helplessly, "paparazzi and stuff. I really don't care if they put pictures of me on every magazine in existence, interview insignificant little office drones that went to school with me for three months in sixth grade and write stories about how I'm an evil genius mastermind because I built a nuclear bomb when I was nine. I seriously don't give a fuck. The only reason it bothers me is because it bothers you."

John looks at him for a long moment, eyes dark and imploring. "It grates on you, after a while," he explains quietly. "That you can't keep anything for yourself, that your private life isn't private just because some busybodies with no lives really need to know whom you're involved with when, and what sort of beer you drink, and what your life plans are, and what you think about the plight of the Mallorcan Midwife Toad. It's really none of their business and I just don't understand why they need to know things like that about me. Why it's not enough that I take a role and play it well."

"I don't get it either," Rodney admits. Then he reaches out and takes John's hand. "But it doesn't matter. We will never tell them anything we don't want to tell, and I promise I'll never tell anyone anything private about you."

"I know that, Rodney." John rolls his eyes. Then he sighs and pushes his lower lip forward in the pout that means he's feeling self-depricating. "Anyways, I knew all this in advance, and it's not like we could've held them off much longer. Sorry for all the self-pity." He rolls his eyes again.

At that, Rodney gets irritated. "Stop it." He reaches out and pulls John into a hug made awkward by their positions. "It's been years since you had a relationship and had to deal with this. But you did deal with it before, and you can learn to do it again. Besides, we're not all that interesting anyway. They'll lose interest, and until then, we'll just not go outside. We can send some of my security guys grocery shopping, they're absolutely horrified at the throng of stalkers I grew and would probably be happy to do it." He had been getting pained faces every time he walked by them today; he's just waiting for one of them to earnestly ask him if this is really necessary. "Besides... this is worth it." Cupping John's face with both hands, he fixates John's gaze with his for a moment. "Totally worth it." He leans in to give John a kiss.

The original plan was to keep that kiss short and to the point, because May must be waiting for them already, but John has other ideas; he pulls Rodney as close as is possible without either of them climbing into the other's lap and claims his lips in a passionate kiss. "I love you," John gasps when he pulls away, one hand on Rodney's neck and the other tangled in his shirt.

Rodney's eyes grow wide, and he swallows noisily. "Uhm, me too. You, I mean." He feels the heat rise on his cheeks; this is the first time either of them has said it, and he handled it less than smoothly. They're not a demonstrative couple, they don't really need grand gestures or declarations to polish something really simple and really precious: they fit, they're good together and for each other. It wasn't like they held back from saying it in the past out of embarrassment or something, they just never did say it. Suddenly, Rodney wonders why. "I love you," he says, trying the words out. They feel good, satisfying, like saying something really obvious sometimes is.

John gives him one of his smiles, the full-face, brilliant one that makes the corners of his eyes crinkle and his eyes shine, and that always includes some kind of touch afterwards, mostly, like right now, their foreheads. The first time John smiled at him like that, Rodney had almost heard the noise when he fell completely, and hard.

That smile is why Rodney never needed to hear John say it – which doesn't at all mean it wasn't nice all the same when he actually did say it. Rodney hopes they'll maybe say it more often now than once every nine months.


End file.
